Prayer for a Bamboo-Flowering FamineKaren An-hwei Lee
竹子开花祝祷词光诸
译
PoemWikiEvery half century, the synchronous flowering of bamboo causes famine in parts of India.
（每隔半个世纪，竹子同时开花都会造成印度部分地区的饥荒）
May we blossom every fifty years
without afflicting the people.
May our seedpods nourish rodents
without rebuking lands with famine.
May sweet potatoes and rice save us.
May ginger and turmeric flourish
to the bitter distaste of rats
while tresses of bamboo flowers
load the groves with seed
in rare perennial synchrony.
May our sisters flower en masse
hundreds of square miles apart
in the pale night. May our shoots
pray a silent vision of healing,
our rhizome-laden memories:
only once on this earth, my love.
Let us bless our fruit and multiply.